1. Technical Field
One or more embodiments relate to systems and methods for interacting with content across one or more client devices. More specifically, one or more embodiments of the present invention relate to systems and methods for improving a user experience when interacting with content across multiple client devices and/or mediums.
2. Background and Relevant Art
Client devices (e.g., computers, tablets, smart phones, etc.) can provide users the ability to view, search, browse, and otherwise interact with large amounts content. For example, content providers can provide content to a user via a variety of content mediums, such as websites, mobile applications, and various other mediums. In many cases, a content provider is a merchant that provides content related to a merchant's products. For instance, a user can search, view, and purchase a merchant's products via a merchant's website.
Many users now access content using a variety of different client devices (e.g., a smart phone, laptop) with a variety of different content mediums (e.g., websites, mobile applications). Conventional systems for providing user content, however, have a number of disadvantages that diminishes the quality of a user's experience when a user accesses a content provider's content from various client devices and/or through various content mediums. For instance, conventional systems do not provide a seamless user experience (e.g., shopping experience) from one client device to the next, or from one medium to another medium.
In some conventional systems, content providers attempt to provide a seamless user experience across multiple devices, but the quality of the user experience that conventional systems provide is limited. In particular, in many cases, a user must provide login credentials to the content provider each time the user switches to a new client device, which prevents a seamless user experience. For example, when a user switches between client devices and/or mediums, the user must re-login to allow the content provider to re-identify the user and to restore items in the user's shopping cart. However, requiring users to provide login credentials each time they switch to a new client device can inconvenience users, especially when the user cannot accurately recall the user's login credentials.
In addition, while conventional systems can restore some data from a previous user session, conventional systems do not allow the user to actually resume a user experience across multiple client devices. For example, even after a user provides login credentials, conventional systems allow the content provider to present only limited information to the user, such as items in a user's cart. Further, in many conventional systems, the user needs to perform duplicative actions after switching to a second client device to regain or continue a user experience. Accordingly, when a user accesses content with more than one device, conventional systems can be time consuming and frustrating to a user.
In addition, conventional systems fail to provide a seamless user experience to users between different mediums. For instance, conventional systems do not allow for a seamless shopping experience when a user is switching between applications on the same client device. For example, if a user searches for a product on the merchant's website using a web-browser application on a tablet, the user will again have to manually search for the same product after if the user decides to use the merchant's application. Thus, each time a user changes to a new content medium, the user in essence starts a separate user session that is not linked with a user's previous session on a prior content medium.
Accordingly, there are a number of considerations to be made in improving a user experience related to providing content across multiple client devices and/or multiple content mediums.